*Ø* Blogmanac | Number 10 admits slur on Dr. Kelly
Downing Street was forced to admit last night that a senior official had tried to discredit the Iraq weapons expert David Kelly by describing him as a 'Walter Mitty' fantasist. The embarrassing climbdown came after No 10 had spent the day denying that the British Prime Minister had authorised any attempt to undermine the credibility of the scientist, whose funeral takes place tomorrow.

The Government already faces accusations that the leaking of his name by the Ministry of Defence contributed to his death.

The Independent said yesterday that a senior official at No 10 had compared Dr Kelly to James Thurber's fictional Mitty, a character with delusions of grandeur. The source claimed that Dr Kelly had told Andrew Gilligan, the Radio 4 Today programme reporter, more than he knew then failed to admit to the MoD the full extent of his contacts with journalists.

Opposition MPs and colleagues of Dr Kelly, who is believed to have committed suicide after being caught up in a war of words between the Government and the BBC, reacted angrily to the smear. Richard Butler, who headed the United Nations weapons inspection team when Dr Kelly was part of it, told the programme: "This man was wedded to the truth and had a deep experience in Iraq."

The smear coincided with continuing confusion at the MoD over how to explain the removal by the Metropolitan Police of a document relating to Dr Kelly that officials had planned to destroy. Despite a spate of denials over the weekend, MoD officials admitted privately that the document was "a media plan" on how to handle stories about Dr Kelly.

Source: the Telegraph